


Inferno

by redtrouble



Series: Demonheart: Through the Eyes of Sir Brash [9]
Category: Demonheart (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:44:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtrouble/pseuds/redtrouble
Summary: Sir Brash rescues Bright from Rivera in Inferno. (Spoilers, please play first.) Rated M for mature language.





	Inferno

Sir Brash opened his eyes when a shadow fell over him and found Rivera staring grimly down at him. How long had he been asleep? Long enough to feel stronger, more alert, clear-headed. Where was Bright? What had happened while he was unconscious? Brash swallowed but his throat felt bone dry, his tongue a thick lump in his mouth. Rivera’s upper lip lifted in disgust then she dropped a pair of pants onto his chest.

“You want your freedom?” she asked, anger edging her tone. He frowned, wondering what kind of setup this was, then cautiously nodded. “Then destroy the demonheart girl and my traitorous apprentice.”

What? Kill Bright _and_ Ari? Just what the fuck had happened while he was unconscious? But if Rivera needed them dead, that meant they were alive and safe, for the moment. He didn’t have time to think about anything else. If Rivera was going after Bright, his best chance to keep her safe would be to go with her. So he nodded.

“Swear it!” Rivera hissed.

“I swear,” Brash growled. He would swear to anything, tell any lie to save his kitten.

“Good.”

Rivera dropped his sheathed sword onto his abdomen and he grunted, curling into the blow. Then she whirled on her toes, blue robe spinning behind her. Brash grumbled as he watched her go, grinding his teeth through the pain as he pushed himself upright by his elbows. Moving hurt way more than he expected. He took a look around the room. The cables were no longer dripping poison and the toxic cloud had completely dispersed. He inspected his arms and chest where the tubes had been attached. The sores were only purple indentations now. The wounds had closed and were already healing.

Satisfied, Brash tried to stand. It took him a few moments to get on his feet and still more time to struggle into his pants. Why’d they have to take his fucking clothes off, anyway? He’d accuse them of being dirty, old hags if he didn’t know they preferred their own anatomy. He clutched his sword and hobbled out of his cell, feet sliding across the stone as he worked his muscles into cooperating. Soon, he was limping his way down the hallway where Rivera was glaring at him. He followed her to a storage room where his armor had been stored.

Brash propped his sword against the wall and snatched up his shirt, pausing only when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in a dusty, webbed mirror. His muscular body was so much leaner than it once was and, in certain places, he could see his veins beneath his skin, black and thin. He turned to the side, grimacing at the dark bruises on his arms and chest and the messy lacerations on his back where Rivera had subdued him before putting him under. The toxin must have prevented it from healing properly. He carefully reached around his torso and fingered the rippled flesh but it looked worse than it felt.

Without wasting any more time, Brash pulled his shirt over his head and quickly began equipping his armor, piece by piece. First he donned his chain shirt, jerkin, gorget, and cuirass then he laced on his boots and belted his greaves over them. Next, he buckled the faulds and tassets to the base of the cuirass and tied his two belts. The pauldrons were heavy and awkward. Normally a squire attended him in this matter but Brash had practiced getting in and out of his armor often enough that, even in his weakened state, he was able to latch his own pauldrons. He stuffed his hands into his gauntlets. When he pulled his cloak over his shoulders and fastened the chain to his Scarcewall insignia, he almost felt like himself again.

Brash grabbed his sword and stepped out of the storeroom. Rivera’s arms were folded across her chest impatiently. When she saw he was armored, she immediately began heading for another room. He followed.

“What happened?” he demanded to know.

“Xan’ari betrayed me,” she spat. “She freed the demonheart and took her to retrieve her heart.”

So Rivera had removed Bright’s heart, too. But why keep it? Why not just eat it and become a demonheart herself? What was she waiting for? Brash shook the thought out of his head. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Bright was alive and Ari was, for some bizarre reason, helping her. It seemed like his kitten could tame just about anyone.

They reached the portal room and Brash stood quietly in the corner while Rivera made the necessary preparations to open it. His fingers itched to draw his sword and have the witch’s head right then and there, but he knew he needed a proper diversion if he had any chance at all to defeat her. If Ari really had turned on her, maybe a violent confrontation could be provoked. Rivera certainly appeared to be on the warpath. And then there was Bright. As long as she was there, she was at risk, but there would be no way for him to warn her without giving himself up. He needed Rivera to believe he was on her side long enough to find an opportunity to turn on her.

“Where are we going exactly?” he asked.

“To one of my gardens in Inferno,” she replied.

“Inferno?” he echoed, agitated. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid,” she hissed. “Of course it is perfectly safe.” The portal flashed and began humming. Rivera glared back at him. “Come,” she said and fearlessly plunged into Inferno.

Brash took a deep, nervous breath and went in after her. They were in some weird room, fleshy and fancy. Ari looked both terrified and shocked, frozen to the spot. Beyond her was Bright. Brash could almost feel his heart—wherever it was—beating faster at the sight of her.

Her eyes were looking right at him, brow bent in uncertainty to see him with Rivera. He wanted to tell her that he was there for _her_ , to not be afraid. He wanted to tell her that he would protect her no matter what. But he just glared at her, too scared to do anything that might tip Rivera off to his true intentions. He wished Bright would trust him but he knew he couldn’t ask that of her, not after what he had done. She had every right to question him. He just hoped she still cared enough to not turn on him…

“You returned her heart?” Rivera asked incredulously.

“No!” Ari exclaimed, panicked. “Please, let me explain!” She took a hesitant step toward Rivera, arms spread. “She had a demonspawn as an ally! Orchid’s son!”

 _What?_ Brash’s gaze jumped from Ari to Bright and back again. Was this girl fucking serious or was this some kind of stalling tactic?

“Demonspawn?” Rivera echoed. “Are you insulting my intelligence, Xan’ari?” Clearly, she wasn’t buying it. “Orchid’s plans _must_ have failed! And if not, where is this demonspawn?”

“He tricked us!” Ari blurted then quickly said, “ _Her_! He ported to her heart and stole it! We don’t know where he went.”

“You lie!” Rivera hissed as Brash was studying Bright, trying to find some hint in her expression that would give away the truth but he couldn’t decide. “You meant to release her all along! You already see yourself as her accomplice in this matter!”

“No!” Ari cried, shaking her head frantically. “What do I need to do so you will believe me?”

“Kill her,” Rivera said and pointed at Bright.

Brash stiffened. If Ari really did turn on Bright, it would be impossible to get past them both. They would be in the same position they were when he first brought her to the ruin… Not that it mattered—he would go down fighting no matter what—but he had been hoping for some way out of this mess for both of them.

Ari gaped at Rivera then looked at Bright, jaw bobbing wordlessly. She didn’t say no but she wasn’t yet preparing any spells. As the silence began to stretch, the tension grew. Bright seemed to sense things were close to breaking because she stepped forward.

“My heart really is no longer in your grasp, or mine! It’s _gone_. It’s over with.”

“Why would I believe you?” Rivera hissed. “Xan’ari.” She pointed her bony finger at Bright. “Kill her.”

“I…” Ari deflated, shoulders drooping, arms dropping to her sides. “I can’t.”

Rivera’s face screwed up into an angry snarl. “That is all the proof I need.”

Brash saw his opportunity and stepped up. “Let _me_ do it,” he said and Bright’s face broke his heart. She shook her head as though denying it would change anything.

“Brash,” she choked out. “Why?”

 _Don’t believe me, kitty girl,_ he screamed in his head as his voice said, “Fuck off.” _Please, don’t believe a fucking word I say._

“My designs have changed,” Rivera explained without looking at her apprentice, “after the whore Ari betrayed me as I knew she would.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “I no longer require _his_ heart—I need only yours.”

“I don’t have it!” Bright insisted, frantic to make them understand. Could she really not have it? Could that bit about the demonspawn be true? Her eyes implored him. “Brash, please! Why?”

He was clenching his jaw so tightly that his teeth hurt. He wanted so badly to assure her, to comfort her. _I wouldn’t betray you again,_ he thought. _I wouldn’t hurt you again, kitten, I swear. Don’t believe this._

“You may speak, Brash,” Rivera said when the silence became too much.

“Thanks, but I have nothing to say to this slut,” he spat, and he had to look away from the tears that sprang up in Bright’s eyes.

“Why do you give _him_ the favorable treatment?” Ari blurted like a rebuked child.

“Because I need better allies than you, traitor!” Rivera snapped. “Enough! Kill her already! _Someone_ do as I say!”

The sound his sword makes sliding against his sheath in the ensuing silence was bone-chilling. Bright immediately drew the dagger Rose had given her. _Good,_ he thought and hoped she would actually use it.

“Brash!” Bright exclaimed, shaking her head. “Please.” He angled his blade in front of him and she winced. “Brash…”

Rivera was smiling, focused on Bright’s fear and misery. That’s when he swung, hoping to take her head clean off. There was a bright spark and his sword rebounded off a magical barrier. In an instant, he was thrown across the room, pain ripping through him as electricity coursed through his body. He dropped his sword, convulsing on the ground. He stared up at Rivera’s vicious expression, magic leaping from her fingertips, and could just barely make out a blur of movement behind her before his eyes began to roll back into his head.

Suddenly, the pain was gone and he rolled onto his back, gasping for breath. He looked at Rivera and went still as stone when he saw her…kneeling on the ground, bleeding from her leg, and Bright holding a dagger to her throat with a dark expression like some beautiful, deadly, red-headed assassin. He held his breath, hoping she would slit her throat, enjoying the way Rivera cowered, defiant to the end but still afraid.

“You’re going to prison for what you’ve done,” Bright said, surprising everyone in the room. Brash almost laughed as he rolled onto his knees and sat up. She was always knocking him off-guard with her kindness. His kitten was too good for this place, these people—him included.

“Brash, you fool!” Rivera cried. “I know you can hear me!”

Bright looked over at him and their eyes met and he could have sworn he felt his long, lost heart thump harder.

“Brash!” Rivera wailed in the unnerving quiet. “You will die for this! You cannot allow this to proceed!”

“Hmmm,” he rumbled thoughtfully as he stood. “You’re right.” He picked up his sword and made his way toward her. “I can’t allow her to send you to _Feline’s_ prison. Their guards can’t even do their jobs right.” He yanked her arms and twisted them painfully behind her back. To Rivera’s credit, she bit back her scream. “It’s better to bring you to Lord Mace. He may still have a thing or two to ask you.”

Brash looked at Bright, gazing at her from over the top of Rivera’s head, hoping she understood the message behind his words and actions—that he was going to support her choices, that he was going to be there for her like he should’ve been all along. She was taking him in, expression unreadable, but he didn’t think there was any anger in her eyes.

“Fool!” Rivera spat. “I am the only one who knows the way to your heart!”

Brash cut his gaze to the kneeling witch, annoyed. “That’s right… You know _too much_.” He lifted his sword. “We’d better kill the witch and be done with it. That solves the problem with my heart, too.”

“No,” Bright said. “We’re talking her back alive. I promised.”

Brash flicked his gaze at Ari trembling across the room. So that was the price of the apprentice’s help. Too bad.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Let me tie her up. Or we can fucking tie her up twice, to be sure.” He stabbed Rivera’s skirt, pinning it to the ground, then bent and used the hole he created to start his tear. “The snake will do everything she can to kill us all after this…” He ripped a long strip off and gagged her then ripped off several more and bound her wrists tight.

“She’s wounded,” Ari said, voice quivering with concern. “Are you going to bandage her leg?”

“No!” Brash barked. “And she’ll live.” Then he bashed Rivera upside the head with his sword and she fell face-first into the dirt, unconscious. Ari shrieked. “Shut up. I said she’ll live.” He sheathed his sword and stomped toward the tiny witch, grabbed her by the shoulders, and growled, “Where the fuck is my heart?”

“I…don’t know…” she confessed. “It’s in Garden Four, but I never saw the coordinates…”

“In the fucking what? What are you talking about?”

“It is a hidden place in Inferno. Another secret hideout, like this one. It’s only reachable through a certain combination of portal keys, which I don’t have. Only the mistress knows it.”

Brash let out a ragged sigh and shoved her back before walking away from her. “And she’ll never help us. It’d be the last fucking thing she’d do.” He stared off into the distance for a moment, weighing his options but he was still coming up heartless. “Well, what the hell! I’ll just be like Mace. It’s better than living as a target for the hunters.”

Brash turned to look at Bright, suspicious of her silence, and went rigid when he found her staring at him with a look like she was a pot about to boil over. He was so confused that he barely heard Ari say, “I’ll just prepare the portal…” He took a step toward her.

“Brash, you idiot!” she exclaimed, hands balled into fists. He thought she looked like a kitten with its tail all puffed up. “You jerk!”

“I know,” he said then smirked, still moving toward her. “When we’re out of hell, you can kiss me all over to prove just how much you hate me.”

“Bastard!”

“Is that why you left me back there?” he teased. Her mouth dropped open, astounded.

“I tried to help you!” she cried.

“Yeah,” he agreed, slipping his arms around her waist. She didn’t struggle or move away but he still felt like teasing her. He bent his face toward hers and murmured, “I remember your silky hands on me, little pussy. Much use you were.” She flushed bright red and looked away. He chuckled, brushing his nose against her cheek. “You did well, kitten.” When her stubborn expression softened, he said, “Sorry for teasing you. I was really surprised when you tried to help me. And it did help—just knowing that you cared enough to do that. Nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

She hesitantly licked her lips and finally met his eyes. Their faces were so close that it would take no effort at all to kiss her. He wanted to kiss her but he knew he had to wait. After everything, he had to know for sure what she wanted from him. He wouldn’t risk hurting her again. Because ‘I don’t want you to die’ did not mean ‘I love you’, because trying to save him was not necessarily a confession, and because everything that happened before they arrived at Rivera’s lair couldn’t count in the wake of his betrayal.

“Are you…okay?” she asked, touching his breastplate. There was so much concern in her eyes. He wanted to believe it meant what he thought it meant. The fact that she was even allowing him to hold her like this gave him hope.

“I’m getting better by the moment…” he whispered, and it wasn’t a lie. Physically, he still felt like shit, but the physical was the least of his worries. She was alive, she was safe, and somehow— _somehow_ —she didn’t seem to hate him. He felt fucking wonderful.

Bright’s slender hand moved from his chest to his cheek. There were pearls of tears on her eyelashes. “You…” She stopped as though the words were hard to say. “You fucking scared me.”

He tried to stifle his smile at the sound of her cursing. Had she always had such a foul mouth or had she spent too much time with him? Suddenly, he wanted to kiss her even more than before. He kept one hand pressed to her back, holding her against him, and the other he lifted to stroke her hair.

“You must think I’m an idiot for not acting sooner,” he murmured, pressing his forehead against hers. “Rivera was strong with Ari by her side. But maybe I should have tried to fight her with you and the soldiers.” He squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating on the feel of her in his arms. “I’ve learned that there are things worse than death for me. I should have risked it.”

“What is…?” she asked quietly. “Worse than death?”

Brash took a deep breath. “Betraying you…” He felt like an idiot saying it, felt exposed, vulnerable—as exposed and vulnerable as he had been stripped naked and pumped with a crippling poison. He grimaced, wanting to make her understand—needing her to understand. “Look, I thought there was no escape. For you, that is. I didn’t expect Rivera to turn on me immediately. Even if I changed the plan, we were on her territory. Everything was planned in advance. Couldn’t surprise her, couldn’t defeat her. The fucking crone was always prepared.” He swallowed the bitter taste left behind by his admission. “But don’t think I feel good about it. It was all planned before I met you… And then when I saw whom I was getting killed, hell broke loose. I wouldn’t choose the same way again.”

She pulled back far enough to look him in the eyes. “What changed?”

He sighed. He owed her an explanation at least. He stalled for a moment, glancing back to make sure Rivera was still unconscious and Ari was indeed setting up the portal for their return. When he was satisfied, he focused on Bright’s beautiful hair, remembering the way it fluttered in the breeze in his dream. He ran his gloved fingers through the strands, red silk against cold steel.

“After Rivera captured me,” he began quietly, “I felt greater torture than anything she ever did to me.” He finally met her gaze. “I thought you were dead… I wished that I had realized sooner…that the pain of torture and death would be nothing in comparison.”

“Why?”

Embarrassment struck him in the form of anger and Brash snarled. “Are you really going to fuck me in the head over this, as if you don’t get it?” he growled, grasping her by the shoulders a little too forcefully. “I love you! It’s no good being alive, knowing that I killed you!”

Bright’s lips connected with his in a kiss that literally took his breath away. He inhaled sharply, anger instantly quelled, and wrapped his arms around her, pressing her against him. He kissed her back, kissed her hard, instantly taking control. She winced against his mouth, fingers tightening in his hair, as he claimed her tongue with his own.

He knew he should be more vigilant—they were in Inferno, after all. Even if Rivera had said it was safe, he didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her. And even though Ari had refused to kill Bright, that didn’t make her on their side. It would be cruel to lose everything at this stage of the game because he wasn’t paying attention. But her mouth was so intoxicating, he didn’t want to stop.

Brash forced himself to slow down and detach himself from her lips. He gazed at her pink cheeks and glassy eyes as he tried to catch his breath.

“I love you,” she whispered and he couldn’t help stop the smile that instantly broke out on his face.

“Yeah… I know,” he murmured, planting one last kiss on her lips. “I love you, too, kitty girl.” He caught her by the chin and lifted it. “I will never hurt you again,” he promised.

Her gaze roved over his face, from his olive eye to his black one, across his scar, the stubble on his jaw, lingering on his mouth, then back to his eyes. She gave him a small smile. “I forgive you, Brash.”

And just like she had since the first time he met her, she knocked the wind out of him. It was more than he fucking deserved and she was giving it to him, giving it without him even asking. Absolution. She was a fucking saint.

Brash hugged her, his jaw pressed to the top of her head. Since he had met her, his guilt had been punishing him for what he knew he had to do, for what he had done. Could he really stop blaming himself? _I forgive you_. They were just words, they had no power to erase the past, and yet hearing it from her somehow seemed to change everything.

“The gate is ready to be opened,” Ari announced. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah,” Brash called over his shoulder then released his firehair, who was smiling up at him. He grinned. “Yeah… Let’s get the fuck out of here.”


End file.
